In the cyberspace, Savita Bhabhi has successfully managed to attract eyeballs. Offline, it could soon be Sangeeta Bhabhi. To be sure, Sangeeta Bhabhi is no relation to her infamous online character, but an icon created by consumer goods major Procter & Gamble to hardsell its stuff in rural India. After a two year long push into the hinterland, P&G has come up with a new addition to its marketing strategy in the form of a character called Sangeeta Bhabhi, a dedicated housewife.

NEW DELHI: Electronics major Sony aims to tap non metro/rural markets with its small screen TV panels along with strengthening its sales network in these areas. The company, which has launched affordable range of panels of 22-inch size last year in order to tap tier II, III & IV markets, has expanded its sales network to over 10,000 distributors to cash in on the opportunities. "Last year, Sony had launched its first 22-inch product, aiming to adapt those...

The world's largest home appliances maker, Whirlpool, is eyeing rural markets in India for its next phase of growth. The company, which has significant market share in the refrigerator, AC and washer segments in India, is set to tap markets with a population between one lakh and five lakh in the first phase, and in the next phase, will look at expanding the base in villages with a population of 50,000. Lower pricing could be the driving force here. Although Whirlpool is already present...

KOCHI: Bharti Axa General Insurance Company Limited has decided to give special focus on rural markets in its total business plans. Speaking to ET, Mr George Kurien, chief financial officer, Bharti Axa General Insurance Company Ltd said that the penetration of general insurance companies is low in the rural markets probably because it is difficult to service. "The market is also marked by the absence of big ticket business", he said adding that it is more of a volume driven...

NEW DELHI: China-based OPPO is looking to tap India's rural market with budget smartphones. It is also closely watching the government's 'Make in India' initiative and is keen participate in it. "We are planning to come up with low-range and mid-segment smartphones which fits the budget and delivers the best-in-class experience," OPPO Mobiles India Chief Executive Tom Lu told ET. According to him, Indian's rural market is catching up...

ET INTELLIGENCE GROUP: Hurt by declining sales — particularly in villages and small towns — India's largest motorcycle maker Hero MotoCorp's stock has under-performed in the last three months. In order to project its earnings investors were waiting for the management to clarify two issues: first, what will drive sales if the rural economy continues to remain subdued; second, when will costcutting measures translate into higher margins. However, with the company...

Consumers in rural markets appear to be driving the double-digit 20-25per cent growth rate that's currently being recorded by the Rs 1,450 crore shampoo market. The rural market has recorded a volume growth of 40per cent while the urban market is trailing along at 16per cent. Industry officials said higher innovation and improved affordability in the market has helped increase penetration levels in the rural markets vis-à-vis the more saturated urban markets. Market leader HLL...

NEW DELHI: Zee Turner, the distribution arm of Zee Telefilms and Turner International India, has launched new initiatives to increase penetration into the rural markets. The initiatives, which offer cable operators special packages, are targeted at reaching viewers in remote areas and small towns. "Of the 43 million cable and satellite households in India, 15 million are in the rural areas. This offers a huge potential and opportunity," Zee Turner COO...

KOLKATA: Coca-Cola India has identified rural markets for volume growth in India. The cola giant is slowly adopting a localised marketing strategy with local brand ambassadors and localised marketing campaigns to reach out to the rural consumers. The move has been undertaken to increase Coca-Cola India's consumer base by 30 crore in 2004. "Nearly 30% of our sales come from the rural markets. The management has decided to focus on the rural markets to give a significant boost to...

MUMBAI: While fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) majors struggle to sell more in the countryside, durables manufacturers are seeing record sales in rural areas. By making products affordable and expanding their presence in the form of service centres and collection centres, durables majors like LG, Samsung and Onida are expecting 65-70% of volumes to come from the smaller markets. Economy models of colour TVs, direct cool refrigerators and semi-automatic washing machines have been launched...

Mobile marketing has taken a whole new meaning. As urban markets get saturated, mobile handset makers and mobile service operators ? in their search for new markets ? are going deeper into the countryside, tapping semi-urban and rural markets. Until now, selling mobile services was easy since the markets comprised metros and other urban areas. Compared to their rural counterparts, the urban populace is believed to have a comparatively higher...

MUMBAI: Declining sales volume growth has led India's largest motorcycle-manufacturer--Hero MotoCorp's stock to under-perform over the last three months. The company's sales volume growth turned negative in the second half of FY15 after the rural consumption dipped on account of the unseasonal rains. In order to be able to take a relook at the variable for the projected earnings for the company, the investors were hoping to seek clarity on two key issues from the quarterly results of...

NEW DELHI: General Motors India today reported 31.87 per cent decline in sales at 3,612 units in April 2015. The company had sold 5,302 units in the same month of last year, it said in a statement. Commenting on the performance, General Motors India Vice President P Balendran said, "The overall customer sentiment has not picked up as expected and the rural markets are also facing challenging times. The fuel price hike from last night is also...

NEW DELHI: Maruti Suzuki India plans to invest Rs 4,000 crore this fiscal on capital expenditure in order to enhance its leadership position in the market. The company, which reported its highest ever annual profit and sales in the fiscal concluded March 31, 2015, said the amount would be utilised on enhancing marketing infrastructure, launching new products and on R&D. Maruti is looking to set up new display centres where its different models are displayed...

MUMBAI: Despite more than a decade of rural push, most consumer product companies including Colgate-Palmolive and Hindustan Unilever have just about a third of their sales coming from the hinterland. For this, industry experts cite the focus of companies on premium products, which have fewer takers in villages than in cities, and the cost involved in distributing products in far-flung places. Latest Nielsen market data sourced from...

By Rama Bijapurkar and Rajesh Shukla Some marketers say that in their experience the rural-urban divide is blurring, and the whole idea of rural marketing as we knew it (haats, wall paintings, mobile vans, paisa packs, street corner demos on benefits and methods of usage, etc) are now obsolete; that media, physical distribution, exposure to the world, income levels, access to ecommerce have drastically improved, so...

Planning the cost model for going rural is like planning a Big Fat Indian Wedding, only tougher. First, unlike 'normal' weddings where at least there's clarity on who the groom is, here you're mostly struggling to figure out 'Who's my consumer?' Is it the mere desh ki dharti type farmer from the Manoj Kumar films of yore? Or the cab drivers and the liftmen who have a rural mindset but stay in cities? By the time a brand figures this out, it's...

Dentsu Aegis' Ashish Bhasin speaks about how some hoary beliefs about rural markets are just plain wrong By Ashish Bhasin I got my first real rural marketing experience about 27 years ago, when, to my utter dismay, as a fresh MBA with a 'prestigious' job of an account executive at Lintas, I was assigned to work on the launch of Wheel for Hindustan Lever. The then marketing director, the famous Shunu Sen, insisted that I spend 15 days in...